Cold case solved: Former Florida deputy named suspect in 1979 murder of store clerk

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. - Forty-five years after a store clerk was shot and killed, the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office identified a former deputy as the prime suspect.

It's a story with many twists and turns, including the shooting death of the deputy's wife just months before the murder in question.

Murder of Adele Easterly

CCSO said Adele Easterly, 25, was shot twice with a 12-gauge shotgun while working at the Farm Store off U.S. 17 in Punta Gorda on Nov. 5, 1979.

Pictured: Adele Easterly. (Courtesy: Charlotte County Sheriff's Office.)

Her death was called in by Deputy John Greer, who was on duty at the time and claimed he found Easterly dead inside the store.

The following year, in October 1980, Greer resigned from the force while under investigation for other alleged activities.

Pictured: John Greer. (Courtesy: Charlotte County Sheriff's Office.)

More details would come to light in 1986, when a friend of Easterly told detectives that Easterly had talked about dating a Charlotte County deputy, who would visit her at the store while she worked the night shift. Easterly also reportedly mentioned she was afraid of the deputy about two weeks before her murder.

Greer was also known to carry a personal 12-gauge shotgun in his car – the same type of gun used to kill Easterly.

Shooting death of John Greer's wife

On Aug. 27, 1979 – 71 days before Easterly's death – Greer's wife, Jackie, was shot at the couple's Port Charlotte home. At the time, there was no evidence proving Jackie's death was anything other than a suicide.

When detectives interviewed Easterly's friend in 1986, she said the deputy Easterly was dating – now believed to be Greer – claimed he told his wife he wanted a divorce, and the couple fought over a gun, which went off and killed his wife.

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Around the same time, Greer told investigators a different story about Jackie's death: he said he heard a popping sound while sleeping and awoke to find his wife shot to death in a closet.

No other Charlotte County deputies lost a wife to suicide or homicide during that period, according to CCSO.

Connecting Greer to the deaths

Decades passed, with CCSO's Cold Case Unit, which was formed in 2009, eventually taking on the case of Easterly's murder.

The case was featured on the sheriff's office's social media accounts in 2016. At the time, investigators did not name their prime suspect, but they said he had knowledge of law enforcement, had relocated to either Tennessee or Kentucky, and had mentioned his involvement in a murder during altercations with other women.

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That post led to tips about John Greer, including from a woman who said Greer repeatedly sexually assaulted her and threatened to kill her when she was part of CCSO's ‘Explorer’ program, which works with teens and young adults. The woman said that during one assault, Greer told her "ask them dead [expletive] like Adele Easterly what happens when they say no to me."

The woman also said she was working in dispatch the night of Easterly's murder and that Greer returned to the sheriff's office complex carrying a long gun while appearing disheveled.

Detectives closely monitored Greer in the Kingsport, Tennessee, area in the years that followed, and attempted to interview him.

Pictured: John Greer in 2020. (Courtesy: Charlotte County Sheriff's Office.)

That interview finally happened in April 2023, by which point Greer was bedridden at an extended care facility and could only give short answers to questions.

During the 2023 interview, Greer admitted to shooting both Easterly and his wife, Jackie. He did not confirm whether Jackie's shooting death was intentional or accidental.

While detectives finally had some concrete answers, Greer was deemed unable to stand trial due to his declining health. He died on March 2, 2024, at age 77.

"I have always said that we will not hide from our past, no matter how dark," Sheriff Bill Prummell said in a statement. "This case shows that we will always seek the truth, even when we may not like what we find. I want to be clear that this individual does not represent the overwhelmingly great men and women who have worked for this agency over our century-plus of existence. I am angry at the scar he has left on our reputation, but I am even more upset about the people he hurt through his vile actions. My heart goes out to the victims and their loved ones."

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